


Kris' Big Secret

by Snowboots



Category: Deltarune (Video Game)
Genre: Kris and Susie show up but not for the whole thing, Story mainly has appearances from Lancer and Ralsei
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 17:55:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17833355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snowboots/pseuds/Snowboots
Summary: Ralsei tries to figure out why Kris chooses to be so quiet. It's not what he's expecting.





	Kris' Big Secret

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this sitting around in draft form since the month Deltarune came out so I apologize if there are any mistakes.

“Hey, Kris? Why are you always so quiet?”

Ralsei asked it in the middle of battle, after the fourth time Kris had used gestures to tell him and Susie what to do instead of speaking.

Kris smiled at him and gave a thumbs up. As much as Ralsei wanted to understand what that meant, he didn’t. At all.

Of course, Ralsei and even Susie had eventually come to understand what many of Kris’ common gestures meant. They knew when they were telling them to flirt, to fight, to spare. But outside of battle was whole new territory. In the now peaceful world, where many of the Darkners had come to respect them, the battles were becoming fewer and fewer. It was harder to tell what Kris meant during the times they didn’t feel like speaking.

Ralsei was determined to understand his friend though, and to get them to speak more often!

But… Seeing them simply give a thumbs up instead of answering his question made it seem like this was going to be a massive mountain for him to climb.

 

Ralsei was helping Lancer with drawing new banners. Admittedly they looked… Quite bad. Neither of them were artists, apparently.

Ralsei wasn’t exactly sure when they had become friends, or if they even _were_ friends, but it had started sometime after Kris and Susie had made their first revisit. Ralsei was closest, so they went to see him first, then Lancer. This happened so often that Lancer eventually caught on and started showing up at Ralsei’s around the time the other two would appear. It was always a little awkward when they never showed up. Lancer was only coming to see Susie, not Ralsei. It was very obvious. So in the meantime Ralsei and Lancer would be forced to hang out. Ralsei thought they would have a lot in common, being both princes, but in reality they hardly had anything else that was related.

To be honest, Ralsei thought that he had only been invited to help Lancer because Susie didn’t come. Again. Ralsei guessed she had been grounded.

“Well,” Lancer said, sticking out his tongue and holding up his side of the poster. “What do you think?”

There were a bunch of stick figures holding hands. There were either explosions going on in the background or everyone was on fire, Ralsei couldn’t tell.

“It’s very nice!” Ralsei complimented him.

“Well, YEAH.” Lancer pulled out a marker and filled in something he had missed. “It’s my castle now, so it’s gotta look really good. Don’t you decorate yours the same way?”

“Well, um,” Ralsei felt embarrassed. “I try to, but I’m the only one there so there isn’t much point in going all out.”

“Oh.” Lancer stared at him.

“What?”

Lancer went back to what he was doing.

“Hey.” Ralsei did his best to puff up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“WELL,” Lancer finally answered. “Your house is supposed to be like you. I figured it looked boring and plain because you are.”

Ralsei looked at him sideways. “I thought we agreed to not insulting me.”

Lancer huffed. “It’s true! You’re supposed to put stuff you like in it! Why do you think my motorcycle is in here?”

“Because you don’t have a garage??”

“NO!! It’s because I love motorcycles!” He pointed at it for extra emphasis. “If you don’t put stuff in your house that tells me who you are I’m just gonna think you’re lame.”

Ralsei thought for a minute, ignoring the insult. “So you’re saying I need to decorate?”

“Duh!”

Ralsei flattened. “There’s not really a point though, is there? You guys are the only ones who visit, and we never really stick around unless I have food.”

Lancer waved at him. “Uh, hello? I stay all the time??”

_To wait for Susie_ , Ralsei wanted to say, but bit his tongue.

“I’m not trying to be mean, but you really need to put something in your house.” When Ralsei didn’t answer fast enough, he quickly tacked on, “I can help you when we’re done!!”

“Oh, um, that’s okay. You really don’t-“

“I already said yes,” Lancer interrupted, frowning at Ralsei with his tongue still peeking out.

Ralsei was mostly quiet until they had finished both sides of the poster. He spent the time wondering what exactly he would decorate his house with. His options were very limited considering his lack of time in the outside world before his friends had shown up, so he ended up coming up with nothing.

He slumped down a little when he finally decided to give up. “I don’t even know what I’d put up,” he admitted.

“Do you like explosions?” Lancer asked.

“Not really.”

“Cool bikes?”

“No.”

“Me?”

“N- Yes?” Ralsei looked at him strangely.

Lancer grinned. “You can put a picture of me up. That’s one thing.”

Ralsei blinked. “And the others too, right?”

“I dunno, it’s your house,” Lancer replied. “That’s not a whole lot of decorating.”

“I know,” Ralsei sighed. He had grown so accustomed to his home that he didn’t think how blank it seemed was odd at all. Now, though, he just felt embarrassed. Was he really only picking up on this now?

“Hmm!” Lancer thought aloud. “Why don’t we ask Susie and blue guy what they put in their rooms? Maybe you’ll like their stuff more than mine.”

“Kris,” Ralsei corrected him. “That is a good idea though!”

“Okay, sweet! Help me hang this up?” Lancer held up his end of the poster.

“Of course!” Ralsei said. Lancer led him out of the room and a bit down the hallway.

Lancer stopped suddenly. “Right- Oh, bad word.”

“What?” Ralsei asked, peeking around from behind him.

“I think we’re too short.”

“You can stand on me?” Ralsei offered generously.

“Still won’t work.” Lancer stuck out his tongue again.

“Do you have a ladder?”

“Nope.”

“Um.” Ralsei was running out of ideas. “Ask your other dad?”

Lancer deflated. “I think he’s busy. I guess we’ll have to wait for Susie to come. Whenever that is.”

Ralsei, feeling bad for him, patted Lancer on the back. “Until then, we can make more decorations!”

Lancer suddenly stopped looking so defeated. “Ho ho ho! Then she’ll be _real_ jealous that she has to hang up the stuff _we_ made!!”

“Right!” Ralsei tried to say, but Lancer had already grabbed his hand and begun to lead them back to his room, leaving the banner behind. Ralsei was too busy keeping up with him to protest.

 

Ralsei had been busy trying to find a place to hang the picture he had when he felt something tap him on the back. He whirled around, nearly jumping out of his own fur, but calmed down when he realized that it was only Kris.

“Um, hey!” he said nervously. “Please don’t do that.”

Kris shrugged but placed two pieces of paper in Ralsei’s hand. Ralsei looked at them curiously before realizing that it was the pictures of Kris and Susie’s rooms he had asked for a few days ago.

“Thanks! I was wondering if you’d remembered.” He smiled, but nearly jumped again when he realized what he’d said. “Oh, not that I _expected_ you to forget!! I’m sorry.”

Kris waved him off. “S’alright,” they said. “Gotta go.”

Ralsei tried to hide his disappointment and failed. “You’re not staying?”

Kris shook their head. “Exam,” they told him.

Ralsei knew that meant they were probably failing again. Susie had briefly mentioned it when she actually did show up to help Lancer with his posters and banners. He felt guilty, knowing that it was more than likely because of all the nights they had spent awake hanging out with him and Lancer. Perhaps that was why they hadn’t been showing up as often lately.

Still, Ralsei looked down at the photos, trying to find a reason for Kris to stay for just a _little_ bit.

“Hey, Kris, wait,” Ralsei finally spoke up. Kris stopped walking and turned around. “What’s this?”

Kris moved closer and looked at where Ralsei was pointing. “Favorite movie.”

“Why do you have two beds?” Ralsei knew he was making a huge stretch by doing this, but it seemed to be working.

“Brother’s,” Kris answered.

Ralsei blinked, surprised. “You have a _brother_?”

“I need to go,” Kris said again, this time more firmly.

Ralsei knew he had lost. “Well, alright then Kris, goodnight!” He tried to look cheery but he really didn’t feel that way. He had been looking forward to seeing his friends again, and now the one that had shown was already leaving.

Kris surprised him by pulling him in for a tight side hug. “Goodnight,” they said flatly, though Ralsei knew they meant it.

Ralsei watched them go before looking down at the photos again. There was a stark difference between Susie and Kris’ rooms. For one, one side of Kris’ roomed looked completely different from the other. In Susie’s, the room looked mostly the same in terms of theming. He was surprised, however, to see a drawing of all four of them hung on the wall. (Probably from Lancer by the look of it.) He felt a little better after seeing it, even though he still missed them.

He focused on Kris’ room again, looking to see if there was anything surprising in it as well. It quickly became apparent to him that Kris’ room was pretty plain on what appeared to be their side, unless the other side was their’s as well? Either way, the side Ralsei thought was Kris’ only had the poster that he had asked about earlier. He’d have to question Kris on it later, when they had more time to stick around. For now though, he needed to find out how he was going to use some of their ideas to decorate his house with. Except he wasn’t really sure where to even begin.

 

It was another week before The Fun Lancer Fan $*%* Gang Club could hang out together again. This time, at Lancer’s suggestion, they were traveling further than they usually did just to see what else there was to find in the Darkner world. At first, Ralsei had been worried that they would be staying out too late, but Susie reminded him that it was the weekend and she and Kris were both on sleepovers as their cover stories.

They had spent a while walking, with Lancer and Susie fighting for the lead, when Lancer suddenly stopped. “This is boring!” he announced, sitting down and pouting.

“Okay, yeah, it kind of is,” Susie agreed, sitting down beside him. “We’re literally just walking around Walmart at this point.”

“Walmart?” Ralsei asked.

“You wouldn’t get it,” Susie told him.

“We would if we could visit your world!!” Lancer exclaimed. “It’s not fair that you guys can come see us but we can’t come see _you_.” He proceeded to pout even further, crossing his arms for good measure.

Susie shoved Lancer with her foot just enough to tip him over. “You’d literally die the second anyone gave you homework.”

“If I got paid I wouldn’t,” Lancer said from his spot face down in the grass.

“It’s school work. You don’t get paid for it.”

“Why not??”

The two continued to banter. Ralsei saw this as an opportunity to slide over to Kris. He’d been thinking a lot about how he could get to know Kris better without making them uncomfortable, and now was his chance! “Uh, hey?”

Kris looked up at him.

Ralsei pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper from his robe. He unfolded it to reveal the picture of Kris’ room. He pointed out the sole poster in the picture. “You said this was a movie, right?”

Kris nodded.

“Could you bring it down sometime, please?” he asked nicely. “I think it would be lovely to watch!”

Kris shrugged. Ralsei hoped that meant yes.

 

Eventually, Ralsei awoke to find that the movie had been placed in his house overnight. He was a little startled when he realized that meant either Kris or Susie had popped in while he was sleeping, but he was overjoyed nonetheless. Until he remembered that he didn’t have a tv or a dvd player.

But, he did know someone who might have one!!

 

Lancer was, thankfully, not at all annoyed that Ralsei had shown up early in the morning to ask if he wanted to watch a movie. In fact, he went from sleepy to wide awake as soon as Ralsei mentioned it.

“You wanna watch a movie with me??” he exclaimed.

Ralsei nodded. “Uh, of course?”

“There’s a tv in New Dad’s room!” Lancer said even more excitedly, bouncing up and down.

“Do you think he would mind?” Ralsei’s only experience with the man involved a strange combination of Lancer being most the annoying and greatest monster to him (besides himself) all at the same time.

Lancer waved him off dramatically. “Nope!! And if he does he won’t when he realizes that _I’m_ the one asking!”

“Uh, okay,” Ralsei said, not fully convinced. Lancer grabbed his hand, and pulled him to Rouxls Kaard’s room.

“Lesser Daaaaad!!” he howled. Ralsei flinched and felt sorry for the other members of the castle.

“Oh, I think some people might be sleeping?” Ralsei tried to point out helpfully.

“Well, yeah, but I’m the king now, so,” Lancer said, deciding to start pounding on the door instead.

The door creaked open after the first two bangs. Ralsei cringed again, fully expecting Rouxls himself to come out and scold them for being so noisy. He was surprised when he saw that no one was inside.

Lancer smiled wide, his tongue poking out as a result. “He probably knew we were coming!! He’s a really good Dad.”

“Haha, yeah!” Ralsei said nervously. Lancer found the remote and settled down on Rouxls’ bed without a second thought.

“Put the movie there, first,” Lancer instructed.

Ralsei did so, and went to join Lancer. Lancer tried to change the channel but huffed loudly.

“I think he’s recording his stories again. Oh well.” Without hesitating, he canceled the recording and changed the channel. Ralsei’s anxiety heightened immediately. Again.

“Are you _sure_ he won’t mind?” he asked, his voice reaching a whole new pitch.

“Nope,” Lancer repeated. The movie came to the start-up screen and Lancer hopped off the bed. “I’m going to get popcorn, don’t start without me!” He raced out of the room at full speed, leaving Ralsei even more terrified.

To his relief, no one came in and asked why he was there in the time that Lancer was absent. True to his word, Lancer returned with a bowl of popcorn that was easily twice his size. He came to the bed and Ralsei quickly took the bowl from him before he could start climbing up it.

“Thanks!” Lancer smiled at Ralsei, not at all commenting on how he would have absolutely spilt popcorn everywhere if Ralsei hadn’t taken the bowl when he did.

Ralsei breathed out a short sigh. “Shall we start?”

“Oh, yeah!” Lancer picked up the remote and pressed the play button. The movie started and Ralsei was met with an intense action sequence. He suddenly felt like he might be regretting his decision to watch this, but decided to pull through for Kris and Lancer’s sake.

“We should watch that one next!” Lancer exclaimed, watching the person on-screen struggling to jump onto a moving plane.

Ralsei blinked, confused. “We’re already watching it??”

Lancer laughed at him. “These are the _previews_ , doofus!”

“Oh!” Ralsei hadn’t seen a movie in so long he’d forgotten that this was how they started. “Can we skip them?”

Lancer frowned. “No, it builds suspense!!”

Ralsei tipped his head to the side. “For what?”

“The movie!!”

“Well, I guess that does make sense,” Ralsei admitted. He hoped the movie was at least a little less intense than the previews he was witnessing so far.

By the time the movie started, they were already a fourth of the way through the popcorn bowl. Ralsei wished he had brought some water.

Lancer looked at him, seeming to notice his discomfort. “What?”

“Uh, a little thirsty, that’s all!” he said cheerily. “It’s fine.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot the water!” Lancer lightly smacked his head. “Don’t worry, Lesser Dad has some!”

Once again, to Ralsei’s horror, he watched Lancer waltz over to one of Rouxl’s dressers and pull out 2 of what looked like the most expensive water bottles Ralsei had ever seen. Lancer returned to his spot and Ralsei took the bottle he offered with wide eyes.

“You freak out a lot,” Lancer commented, frowning at him.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but, are you absolutely certain this is okay?” Ralsei asked.

“Yeah, take a relax pill!” Lancer scolded him, screwing up one of Susie’s favorite phrases for Ralsei.

“Sorry,” Ralsei said, embarrassed.

Lancer stuck his tongue out at him. “Why are you apologizing?”

“For freaking out?” Ralsei replied.

“Well, you don’t have to, just stop being scared!!” Lancer said, downing the bottle he had. Ralsei decided to take his advice and took a deep breath, before drinking some of his water, too.

It backfired, because he immediately started choking. “Are there _rocks_ in this???”

Lancer poked him. “Shh!! I’m watching the movie!!”

Ralsei pulled out a napkin from his robe and spat out a piece of what was in his mouth when he knew that Lancer wasn’t looking. It was in fact, a rock. A sparkly one. Ralsei decided that he would skip out on the water and politely placed the bottle at his feet, and kicked it under the bed as quietly as he could, not wanting to be rude to Lancer.

 

Ralsei had to admit, the movie was pretty cool, and he was starting to get into it just as much as Lancer. There were two main characters, a stoic man, and a female that Ralsei could really relate to. They were apparently one of the last few people left in their world and were trying to find out how to fix it.

It was honestly very hard to find any resemblance to what they knew about Kris in the movie. Ralsei wished he had thought to bring a notepad. Did the movie mean that Kris felt alone in the world, or was he just overthinking it and Kris just really liked post-apocalyptic genres?

Ralsei was struggling to find a connection when something in the movie surprised him.

“Hey, Mitch?” The girl asked. “Why are you always so quiet?”

Ralsei’s mouth hung open when he realized that he had asked Kris the exact. same. thing. not too long ago!!! This was it!!! He leaned in closer to make sure he heard every word of the other main character’s answer.

The character, Mitch, stared off into the distance. It was quiet, except for Lancer’s loud popcorn chewing in the background.

It took a minute, but Mitch answered.

“Talking is for people who have feelings. Me, Clara? I don’t. It’s a cruel world out there, and I’ve learned that this is the only way to deal with it.”

Ralsei’s mouth shut. Was this why Kris was so quiet?? Was their world _really_ this terrible? He suddenly felt like an even worse friend for not noticing sooner. So much so that he stopped listening to the movie entirely.

But then, a thought came that he latched onto immediately. There was someone else that this character reminded him of.

Susie.

Susie was _always_ overplaying her actions. At first, Ralsei had thought that all those moments where she would suddenly look off into the distance before answering a question, or pretending to be too hardcore to even try his “girly” sweets were all real. But eventually he learned that Susie wasn’t really that cruel, she just liked to play it up just so that they thought she was meaner than she really was.

So maybe… Maybe Kris was doing it too?

It made sense. When Kris did talk, it was either to complain with Susie about school, or something that didn’t at all allude to them being as “pained or miserable” as the main character said he was. In fact, Ralsei had even caught them doing unnecessary things to look cool, like posing in the middle of battle, or blurting out something that _sounded_ cool but made absolutely no sense. Did that mean that, this entire time, Kris was faking their quietness just to look cool???

Ralsei giggled, to which Lancer looked over at him for. Ralsei suddenly couldn’t contain himself and burst out laughing.

“What??” Lancer asked, confused. “Did I miss a joke?”

“Hehe, no, just,” Ralsei wheezed. “Nothing!!”

“Come on!!” Lancer whined. “What’s funny?”

“Okay,” Ralsei said, feeling bad. He tried to still his laughter. “Doesn’t Mitch- hehe, remind you of anyone?”

Lancer thought for a moment. “No?”

Ralsei didn’t hesitate. “Kris!! They’re acting like Kris!!”

“But Kris is a good guy,” Lancer pointed out, confused. “Mitch is supposed to be the bad dude.”

“No, no, I mean their personalities!” Ralsei tried to be helpful despite his continuing urge to laugh. The movie was still going and Mitch was still brooding.

“Ohhh!!!” Lancer seemed to understand in his own way. “They’re both cool!! Like Susie!!”

Ralsei couldn’t help himself and snorted loudly, nearly choking.

Lancer looked at him and tilted his head. “Is that a yes?”

Ralsei nodded, tears in his eyes.

Lancer returned to watching the movie while Ralsei tried to collect himself. If he wasn’t enjoying the movie before, he _definitely_ was now. He spent the rest of the movie struggling not to laugh every time the character from the movie did something dramatic. He and Kris even shared some of the same poses!! Lancer eventually started laughing with him, but it was only because he thought Ralsei laughing at the most inappropriate moments was also hilarious.

Of course, Ralsei would never use this material for blackmail. Susie and Kris hadn’t rubbed off on him _that_ much. But still!!! This entire time, Kris was imitating the guy from the movie? That was it??

Ralsei couldn’t have asked for better friends.

 

“Good?” Kris asked, as Ralsei handed the movie back to them.

Ralsei nodded, smiling. “Of course! Lancer and I watched it right after you gave it to me.”

“THE BROWN HAIRED GUY WAS COOL!” Lancer shouted far too loudly from Ralsei’s newly added futon. It’d been donated by Lancer while they were figuring out how to decorate. Ralsei felt it would be a little too impolite to ask whether it was really okay to just hand over a couch, or how Lancer had managed to convince Susie to drag it over in the first place.

Anyways, Ralsei thought his house was coming together quite nicely! It was mostly filled with pictures of his friends (Ralsei’s additions) and cool things found outside. (Lancer’s additions) Not much, but Lancer wasn’t complaining about it anymore. To his and Lancer’s credit, it somehow looked a little brighter, too.

 

Tonight, the three of them, as Susie couldn’t come yet, were going to play what Kris claimed was the most difficult board game of all time. Ralsei couldn’t help but get into it just as much as Lancer and Kris did, their competitiveness rubbing off on him. However, it was still difficult for Ralsei to keep up. Lancer kept making mistakes that made Ralsei feel too bad to take advantage of him, and Kris was doing everything in their power to decimate the other two as much as possible. It was a massive relief for Ralsei when Kris decided to take a break and go grab a snack from the kitchen.

“Hey, Lancer,” Ralsei said, picking up two of his cards to show the other prince. “Do you want to trade so we can get houses? Kris is taking all of them…”

“Ho ho ho!” Lancer held up the cards Ralsei was asking for. “It’s no wonder we’re best friends, we’re both super smart!”

Ralsei almost did a double take.

“I thought Susie was your best friend?” Ralsei asked, trying to kindly correct his mistake.

Lancer grinned at him. “Well, you’re my best Darkner friend!”

Ralsei blinked in surprise and smiled bashfully. “Oh, uh, thank you!”

The two proceeded to trade cards when Ralsei noticed a shadow cover the game board. He looked up to see Kris shaking their head at them, leaning back against the wall with their arms crossed.

Without even bothering to hesitate, Ralsei burst out laughing. There was no mistaking where Kris’ pose had come from.

Kris cocked their head at him.

Ralsei refused to tell them what was so funny.

**Author's Note:**

> Kris absolutely blackmails people but in the most asshole sibling way possible. Ralsei mixed up salt with sugar one time for someone’s birthday and Kris helped him replace it with a store bought cake so no one would notice. Everyone thought Ralsei made it. Ralsei asked Kris not to tell anyone. Kris then proceeded to make Ralsei get them water every single time they didn’t feel like getting up, even when they weren't thirsty. They would especially ask if Ralsei was literally a floor above them. Ralsei just felt super bad for lying and Kris, being the most innocent child ever,(/s) was like lol.
> 
> If you liked reading this, I have another story posted about these babies in the same lighthearted style. I also have a few more drafts I'm fixing up so stick around for those too! Thanks for reading. <3


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